The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1887-02-03


acted in Drury Lane Theater, Cumberland,
his enemy sat growing at it in the stage
box; while Bishop Cooper was surrounded
by the favor of learned men his wife took
his lexicon manuscript, the result of a long
life of anxiety and toll, and threw it into
the fire.
Misfortune, trial, vexation for almost every
one. Pope, applauded of all the world, has
stoop in the shoulder that annoys him so
much that he has tunnel dug, so that he
may go unobserved from garden to grotto
and from grotto to garden. Cano, the IA
nous Spanish artist, is Disguised with the
crucifix that the priest holds before him,
because it is such poor specimen of cult
ure. And so, sometimes through taste and
sometimes through learned menace, and
sometimes through physical distress-aye,
in ten thousand ways-troubIe comes to
harasS and annoy.
And yet it is unfair to measure mans life
by his misfortunes, because where there is
one stalk of night-shade there are fifty mari
Colds and harebells; where there is one
cloud thunder charged there are hundreds
that stray across the heavens, the glory of
land and sky asleep in their bosom. Be-
cause death came and took your child away,
did you Immediately forget all the five
years, or the ten years, or the fifteen years,
in which she came every night with kiss,
all the tones of your heart pealing forth at
the sound of her voice or the soft touch of
her hand! Because in some financial Eu-
rocelydon your fortune went into the break
ers, did you forget all those years in which
the Injuries and extravagances of life
showered on your pathway! Alas! that is
an unwise man, an unphilosophic man, and,
most of all, an unchristian man, who meas
ures his life on earth by groans and tears,
and dyspeptic fit and abuse, and scorn, and
neuralgia thrust.
Again, / remark that there are many peo-
pie who estimate their life on earth by the
amount of money they have accumulated.
They say: 1.-THE year 1866, or 1876, or 1896
was wasted" Why! Made no money
Now, it is all cant and insincerity to talk
against money as though it had no value
1t is refinement, and education, and ten
thousand blessed surroundings; it is the
spreading of the table that feeds your chill
dren's hunger; it is the lighting of the fur
mace that keeps you warm; it is the max
ing OF the bed on which you rest from care
and anxiety; it is the carrying out at last
of you to decent sepulture, and the put
ting up of the slab, on which is chiseled the
hypocrisy, this trade, In pulpit and lecture
hall, against money, as though it had no
uses. 1t is hands, and feet, and sails, and
ten thousand grand and glorious enter
prises.
But while all this is so, he who uses
money, or thinks of money as any thing but
means to an end, will find out his mis-
take when the glittering treasures slip out
of his nerveless grasp, and he goes out of
this world without shilling of money or a
certificate of stock. He might better have
been the Christian porter that opened his
gate, or the begrimed workman who last
night heaved coal into his cellar Bonds
and mortgages and leases have their use,
but they make poor yard stick with which
to measure life. They that boast them
selves OF their wealth, and trust on the
multitude of their riches, none of them can
by any means redeem his brother, nor give
to God ransom for him, that he should
not see corruption. "Wise men die, like
wise the fool and the british person per-
lsh, and leave their wealth to Others"
But there are maryland | wish there
were more-who estimate their life by their
moral and spiritual development 1t is not
sinful egotism for Christian man to say:
II am purer than I used to be-" There is
no sinful egotism in that. It is not base
egotism for soldier to say: II know more
about military tactics than used to before
l took musket in my hand, and learned to
present arms and when was a pest to
the drilling officer" It is not base egotism
for sailor to say: 81 know better how to
clew down the mizzen top-sail than I used
to before l had ever seen a ship.n And
there is no sinful egotism when a Christian
man, fighting the battles of the Lord, or if
you will have it, voyaging towards a
heaven OF eternal rest, says: Il know
more about spiritual tactics and about voy-
aging towards Heaven than used tor
Why, there are those in this presence
who have measured lances with many foe
and endorsed it. There are Christian men
here, who have become swarthy by ham,
mering at the forge of calamity. They
stand on an entirely different plane of
character from that which they once occu-
pied. They are measuring their life on
earth by golden-gated Sabbaths, by pente-
costal prayer meetings, by communion
tables, by baptismal fonts, by hallelujiahs in
the temple. They have stood on Sinai and
heard it thunder; they have stood on Pts
gah and looked over into the Promised
Land; they have stood on Calvary and
seen the cross bleed. They can, like Paul
the Apostle, write on their heaviest trou-
bles eight" and "but for moment.n The
darkest night their soul is irradiated. as
was the night over Bethlehem, by the
faces of those who have come to proclaim
glory and good cheer. They are only wait
ing for the gate to open, and the chains to
fall off, and the glory to begin
remark again: There are maryland 1
wish there were more-who are estimating
life by the amount of good they can do.
John Bradford said he counted that day
nothing at all in which he had not, by pen
or tongue, done some good. If man be-
gin right, l can not tell how many tears he
may wipe away, how many burdens he
may lift, how many orphans he may COM
fort, how many outcasts he may reclaim.
There have been men who have given their
whole life in the right direction, concen-
trating all their wit and ingenuity, and
mental acumen, and physical force, and
enthusiasm, for Christ. They climbed the
mountain, and delved into the mine, and
crossed the sea, and trudged the desert,
and dropped at last into martyrs graves,
waiting for the resurrection of the Just.
They measured their lives by the chains
they broke of, by the garments they put
upon nakedness, by the miles they travelled
to alleviate every kind of suffering. They